Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders will huddle in Chicago this weekend trying to make headway on what so far has eluded them: striking a grand bargain on a budget deal or reaching a smaller agreement to keep state government running past the new year.

Even before the group gathers behind closed doors Saturday and Sunday at the Thompson Center, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan laid out his demands Friday afternoon.

A group of Democratic state representatives filed a lawsuit against state Comptroller Leslie Munger on Friday, arguing the wealthy Munger and Gov. Bruce Rauner are holding up legislators’ paychecks for political leverage.

“Many lawmakers don’t have the multimillion-dollar side incomes the governor and comptroller enjoy, ” said state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside, one of the Democrats who filed suit.

A day after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner effectively stripped

The Chicago Public Schools may be forced to make deep classroom cuts without $215 million in state pension help, but it’s full speed ahead on school construction projects, thanks to a previously approved property tax increase.

That much was clear Friday when CPS unveiled a “supplemental capital agenda” that includes $75 million to build a new “middle-grades school” on the Northwest Side and another $75 million to bankroll a “new South Side high school.” The previously-undisclosed projects bring the “maximum possible capital budget to $938 million,” officials said.

Members of the Illinois House will cast votes in January on whether Michael Madigan will again serve as their speaker. And the state’s Republican Party is warning that if metro-east lawmakers vote the wrong way, it’ll haunt them in 2018.

Republicans have been trying to make an issue of whether downstate House members will vote for Madigan as speaker. Their efforts include a website, www.bossmadigan.com, which singles out Democratic House members from Southern Illinois: Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton; Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Eldorado; Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville; and Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton.

Food truck owners and supporters are awaiting a ruling Monday that could vastly improve their ability to do business in Chicago, and permanently alter the culinary scene as a result.

Cook County Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos’ expected ruling could resolve a lawsuit that’s been simmering for four years, ever since the city first passed regulations on mobile food vendor operations in the city.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel lashed out at Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday over a veto of $215 million in state pension funding for Chicago Public Schools, suggesting Rauner cared more about corporations like Exelon and ComEd than the city’s students.

“The governor said he was going to sign a bill to bail out the utilities and then vetoed a bill that bailed on the children of the city of Chicago. That’s the way I look at it,” said Emanuel of a measure that raises electricity rates for consumers and keeps open two nuclear power plants.

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday urged a calming of political rhetoric ahead of more tough budget talks, hours before House Speaker Michael Madigan released a wish list of topics he wants discussed during the weekend meetings.

Some of the Southwest Side Democrat’s topics aren’t likely to have much of a calming effect.

Susana Mendoza’s election to state comptroller has many concerned with regard to her affiliation with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), how she will work with Gov. Bruce Rauner and how she will handle the state’s bill payments.

Jim Nowlan — a former state legislator, agency director and aide to three governors – spoke to several Democratic Party insiders and speculated that a Mendoza-Madigan alliance may be awkward for Rauner.

Gov. Bruce Rauner says he’ll meet with legislative leaders to negotiate a budget deal, and he’s willing to include money he vetoed for Chicago Public Schools if it’s part of a “comprehensive package.”

Rauner said Friday meetings are scheduled Saturday and Sunday with the four legislative leaders and “I’m not taking anything off the table.”

Illinois school districts are increasingly relying on local taxpayers to invest in public schools.

They don’t have their jobs back yet, but laid-off workers at U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill received some good news Thursday.

A bill that would extend the workers’ unemployment benefits passed through both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill will go to Gov. Bruce Rauner. Should Rauner sign the bill, it would extend the unemployment benefits to 56 weeks for the approximately 2,300 workers who were laid off nearly a year ago.